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Finding Your Job Search Marketability
Many job seekers I counsel are reticent. They’re reticent to brag about their greatness, shy about describing their value via unique words that distinguish, and reluctant to provide meaty resume content that shows off their accomplishments.
Job seekers with years of compounded work experience and value often have very little experience in the job hunt, driving them into a me-too mindset. Fear and insecurity with the unfamiliar foray into job search seems to be the cause.
Wrong Thinking:
If John Doe writes his resume, LinkedIn, VisualCV, or Twitter profile, etc. “this way,” then I must do it “this-way,” too. If I use language that is too strong, if I use a verb that may be too original, if I write a resume longer than 1 or 2 pages, I may be dismissed, so I must look and sound like everyone else.Occasionally, a job seeker will provide me a resume sample of a friend in a similar position, and will assert s/he wants to sound and look like that person, as if wearing the same word suit and tie someone else wears will assure the right-fit candidate for the job. Instead, the resume reviewer thinks, “nothing special, another me-too candidate.” Emotions are not evoked. Yawn.
Right Thinking:
Only by unearthing aspects of your problem-solving abilities that led to the measurable (%% $$ ##) results will your shades of gray be parlayed into an interview. And only through resonating the nuances of your individual hurdle-leaping experiences will the yawning, otherwise often bored-to-tears resume reviewer (HR pro, recruiter, hiring decision maker, etc.) feel an emotional reaction and connection.So, how do you overcome the fear of writing boldly? How do you loosen the bow-line on your career ship and fully hoist those sails to display their glory?
- Like Most Things Meaningful, Resume Writing Is a Process: As with any effective process, you follow a series of steps, some of them simple, others, more rigorous, linking together for meaningful and long-lasting results.
- Career Brain Dump: To begin, open a blank Word document or grab a pad of paper. Think about what you feel proud of doing every day at your job and begin jotting those thoughts done. Don’t get mired in “results” and “accomplishments” just yet.
- Ask Yourself: What would not have happened if you weren’t doing your job? For example, if you didn’t do your job today, the customer would not have received his widget order, or, the sale for ABC technology solution would not have consummated. Maybe you simply were the liaison between team member Bill and team member Sue, gaining their buy-in to common project goals for an inter-departmental initiative, thus spurring project momentum.
- Continue Being Introspective:
Here are a few more questions you may answer:
- What did you say to the customer to reduce his pain or frustration or help him achieve his goal?
- Did you handle a service complaint to the customer's, and your employer's, satisfaction?
- Did you research and locate a specific product?
- Did you counsel a colleague, or train someone else how to do something faster or more effectively?
- Did you offer a thought in a team brainstorming session that made each person’s role more fluid or simpler?
- What did your boss, colleague, direct report, or customer ask of you that you not only finished, but for which you were commended?
- Why did it matter that you completed that task? What was the impact on your employer, the customer, your co-workers?
- Think Proudly: What has made you most proud at your job in the past month, six months, year and beyond? Jot down thoughts that emerge. Thought traction begets further traction, and you’ll be amazed at the dormant past initiatives that will resurface through these processes. Do not worry about grammar or clarity or spelling at this time; just unleash your memories.
- Quantify Your Achievements: Now, it’s time to start tying your efforts to the bottom line, doing the math or a bit of research to add attention-getting substance to your message:
- How did what you do help grow the customer base, drive revenue, or expand the profit margin?
- What costs did you contain, processes did you shorten, or time did you save?
- How did you improve something or achieve beyond your goals and what quantifiable impact did that have.
- Aim at the Bullseye: Research your reader’s needs, and pull your word stories through a filter that begs, "What’s in it for them?" Shape and target a completed message to hit the audience’s sweet spot of "need." Trim and trash those stories that don’t resonate. Be relevant. Worth repeating: BE RELEVANT to the target audience’s needs.
- Polish and Buff the Hull of your career resume story and be proud to show yourself to employers. Read your story, and then re-read it some more; sit on it for a day or two, and assess it with a fresh perspective. It must excite you in order to excite them. Are you pumped?
- You’ve Filled Your Career Resume Sails with wind, so start sailing. Follow the course that leads to your employment destination. Be brilliant, be bold, be a risk-taker, jibing and tacking with wind-in-your face movements that push your boat forward and lead you to your new career home.
Bottom Line
Don’t feel pressured to duplicate me-too language and formats. Doing so risks your resume being lost in the sea of look-alike resumes, forever washed ashore. The written word, particularly as it pertains to your job search marketability documents, should be descriptive of YOU, specifically. No one else.
© Copyright Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, 2010. Used with permission.
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About This Author:
Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is 1 of only 26 Master Resume Writers in the world and the owner of Career Trend, a boutique career strategy and writing firm serving a global market. Jacqui composes career positioning documents for forward thinking executives and professionals, unearthing and translating their 'value into words.' For more about Jacqui, visit her website at CareerTrend.net or her blog Career Trend's Blog or you may follow her on Twitter at @ValueIntoWords.